Mahoutsukai no Yome
The Ancient Magus' Bride

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--------------------------------Review contains minor spoilers---------------------------------------------------


Synopsis: Hatori Chise is only 16, but she has lost far more than most. With neither family nor hope, it seems all doors are closed to her. But, a chance encounter began to turn the rusted wheels of fate. In her darkest hour, a mysterious magus appears before Chitose, offering a chance she couldn't turn down.

-Ellias Ainsworth, He is an ancient magician with a skull instead of a human head because he is an incomplete being. The Child of Thorns, Chise's master and fiancee, once apprenticed to Master Lindenbaum. A being with both fae and human elements. His origins are a mystery. ... Despite his appearance, he is gentle and polite with humans, who likes Chise Hatori and also offers her to become his bride too. This is definitely a gem for me, I loved it a lot because of its unique setting. Although, it has many male characters that are after main female because of her rare abilities, but it isn't anything that pisses you off. It is actually quite lighthearted yet dark theme.

Genres:- Fantasy, Shonen, Romance, Supernatural.

Story:10/10 (It is still on-going and so far 23 chapters have been released. I am not certain as for where the story will progress, but I loved every chapter of it till now.)

Characters:9.5/10 (TBH, I didn't even bother reading Synopsis when I first the saw the manga on some site. Just the main character's face with romance tag on it was enough for me to read it.)

Artwork:10/10 (Although, it is shonen but there is something about the artwork that gives you senien vibes.)

Enjoyment:- Over 9000 (I read this in one sitting, it just makes you want to read more and more chapters. It is actually fantasy-romance story with depressing atmosphere. I just hope that it won't ahead towards the wrong path.)

The art is beautiful, the initial characters are interesting and complex. Some panels are very stirring! the series holds up with creative problems and interesting magic lore outside of a school setting and held my interest up until about midwayish.
There is an arc that occurs that has derailed any progressive storytelling on the relationship between Elias and Chise as well as Elias' backstory and Chise's magical progress.
Also, there is a crazy amount of exposition on mechanics of magic and magic lore from multiple cultures; very interesting albeit a little excessive.

That being said i reccomend it. This manga definitely has its problems yet it's pretty ... good.

This series would be better named "Stockholm Syndrome and the Wendigo" , I cant quite figure out what others see in this series. Chise and Elias have a strained Owner-Pet relationship throughout the 10+ volumes i suffered through. It comes off as extremely toxic, and every time Chise forgives Elias for being a literal monster, it just seems so forced... Some of the side characters are more interesting, Ruth, Silky, and Alice Swayne have genuinely captivating backstories, and i would happily read a spinoff series about them.

The Ancient Magus Bride ticks a lot of boxes. I wanted to like this series, but honestly I ... found it to be extremely predictable, not to mention boring. There seems to be some missing context to everything shown, like i should be reading this as a sequel to something else. Maybe this series gets by on it's impressive an beautiful art, however that is in vain due to how little narrative is actually displayed. The story moves like molasses, and seemingly important plot points are immediately glossed over or resolved by means of unexplained "magic".

I cant recommend this Manga, it was a chore to read.